Trump wants and expects a civil war over himself, a final clash between Americans who love him and Americans who loathe him — between his egomaniacal views of good and evil.
Source: Opinion | Trump Is Running to Lead a Fascist Nation—Not This One | Common Dreams
It is tempting to liken the conjugal embrace of the Murdochs’ News Corp and the Liberal Party to that of praying mantises – News Corp playing the female role of consuming the male after getting what she wants.
Source: How News Corp damages Liberal Party, and Australian democracy
So far this year, there have been 129 mass shootings in the United States.
Source: The Lives of Our Children or the Greed of Gun Manufacturers? | The Smirking Chimp
Progressive economist Yanis Varoufakis recently gave a talk in Geneva on ways to improve the global economy in the face of growing crises. Dr Jerca Legan reports.
Should they be taking them? Ukraine is desperate for any bit of warring materiel its armed forces can lay their hands on, but depleted uranium shells would surely not be a model example of use. And yet, the UK, in an act of killing with kindness, is happy to fork them out to aid the cause against the Russians, despite the scandals, the alleged illnesses, and environmental harms.
The earnest voices warning that a Trump conviction will end civilisation as we know it are mistaken. There is only one extraordinary thing about the current unfolding judicial saga, but it is not what the commentators think. In fact, it has already come and gone.
Source: Nothing strange or dangerous about Trump’s next criminal convictions
Anxiety that automation is coming for workers’ jobs has reached a fever pitch. But talk of robots replacing humans often conceals a less complicated reality: management uses technology to undemocratically reorganize and intensify labor.
Source: The Weakness of Labor, Not Automation, Is the Greatest Challenge Facing Workers
Abby Grossberg who works for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News in the US has filed 2 proceedings against Fox, one in Delaware and one in New York, claiming “Fox’s legal team coerced, intimidated, and misinformed Ms. Grossberg as they “prepared” her in connection” with giving evidence in the Dominion defamation claim against Fox.
America is a precarious democracy, hardly able to manage its affairs, let alone anyone else’s.
America may be the most advanced technological nation on earth. However, its social progress on matters of great moral importance is still fighting its way out of the dark ages when mysticism was rampant.
If we had been trying to enrich our thinking and diplomacy with China instead of pandering to the United States, we might have been in a better strategic position.
Moreover, we wouldn’t be facing the conundrum we now are.
Source: China, the United States, and us – » The Australian Independent Media Network
America’s biggest threat isn’t China
I don’t want to make light of the challenge China represents to the United States, but the greatest danger America faces today is not coming from China. It is our drift toward proto-fascism. We must take care not to demonize China so much that we generate paranoia that further distorts our priorities, fuels American nativism and xenophobia, and encourages authoritarianism at home.
Source: Distinguishing Between a Chinese Challenge and a Chinese Enemy | The Smirking Chimp
For some reason, I find myself yet again writing about this referendum. Why can’t people comprehend the simplicity of it? Is it because Aboriginal people solely occupied Australia before white people came along? “They didn’t own the land: The land owned them” (as our editor would say).
Reflecting the diminishing public support for the AUKUS deal, a new Guardian Essential Poll has found that only one quarter of Australians support paying the $368bn price tag to acquire nuclear submarines. For decades Australians were gung ho about going to war – almost any war. Today – despite the best efforts of the Nine Media (Peter Hartcher in particular) and other media – they are now far more hesitant.
Source: Guardian Essential Poll: AUKUS support collapses, 3-in-4 oppose – Pearls and Irritations
It is never, ever acceptable, under any circumstances, to cite think tanks funded by governments and the military industrial complex as sources of information or expertise on matters of national security or foreign affairs.
It seems a radical message from the Left of Socialism however demanding to be an EMPEROR and the Oligarch King. Even though he only has around $2.5 B, Rather than a servant of Democracy he wants a TRUMP DEMOCRACY installed. . Trump is PUTIN and KIM JONG-UN in a LATIN DICTATOR in America
On Saturday morning, the former guy posted in all caps on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” and called for his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” He also described the United States as a “DYING” and “THIRD-WORLD” nation, where “THE AMERICAN DREAM IS DEAD!” He added that the 2020 election was “STOLEN,” our borders are “OPEN,” and “PATRIOTS” are being “HELD IN CAPTIVITY LIKE ANIMALS.”
Wealth creates power; power creates more wealth. Unattended, this can become a vicious cycle.
Source: Opinion | Bailing Out the Undeserving Rich—Again | Common Dreams
The current AUKUS submarine contract reflects a profoundly tragic lost opportunity, as Alan Austin reports.
Source: Australia’s submarine deal is a disaster and we know who to blame
20 years ago, on 20 March 2003, the US, the UK, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq in an illegal act of aggression. As with all wars, we were told this one would be quick. The pretext for the invasion was – despite authoritative doubts raised at the time – claims about the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. There were no such weapons in Iraq, although plenty of them in two of the invading nations. After on-again off-again ADF deployments, the last Australian troops finally left the country in June 2020.
Source: Twenty years on, ‘coalition of the willing’ rebranded – Pearls and Irritations
November’s revelation that the bitcoin giant FTX was nothing but a Ponzi scheme has contributed to the fears. Where were the regulators? Last Friday’s revelation that Silicon Valley Bank didn’t have enough capital to pay its depositors has added to the anxieties. Where were the regulators?
During his recent National Press Club appearance, former PM Paul Keating scolded mainstream media journalists — who deserved every stinging syllable of his pinpoint-accurate words, writes Belinda Jones.
But as was demonstrated again this past week, American capitalism needs strict guardrails. Otherwise, it is subject to periodic crises that summon bailouts. The result is socialism for the rich while everyone else is subject to harsh penalties: Bankers get bailed out and the biggest banks and bankers do even better. Yet average people who cannot pay their mortgages lose their homes. Meanwhile, almost 30 million Americans still lack health insurance, most workers who lose their job aren’t eligible for unemployment insurance, most have no paid sick leave, child labor is on the rise, and nearly 51 million households can’t afford basic monthly expenses such as housing, food, child care, and transportation.
Is it any wonder that so many Americans see the system as rigged against them? Is it surprising that some of them become susceptible to dangerous snake-oil peddled by demagogues?
Source: Who’s Raking In the Most From the Banking Mess? | The Smirking Chimp
There are few who think as clearly, who are as articulate, and who are prepared to speak out in the face of incredible stupidity in Australian politics as Paul Keating. And, as he made clear in his address to the press club this week, AUKUS is nothing if not an exercise in security policy stupidity.
Source: Paul Keating excoriates AUKUS as exercise in security policy stupidity – Pearls and Irritations
Whenever you think the political world has gone quiet, a bit of scratching on the surface reveals that the early frenetic pace set by the Albanese Government has kept up its earlier pace.
Source: As the month of March rolls on, so does Albo – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A defence expert says a costly new AUKUS nuclear submarine deal directly benefits British and American governments while Australia takes the main strategic risk, as Anthony Albanese seeks to minimise the diplomatic fallout from the historic announcement.
On Friday, bank regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California. Its failure was the second largest in U.S. history and the largest since the financial crisis of 2008.
On Sunday, regulators closed New York-based Signature Bank.
Source: The Real Story Behind the Silicon Valley Bank Debacle | The Smirking Chimp
as many times as federal officials repeat that they’re not bailing anyone out, it still won’t be true. Are there differences between these bailouts and those during the 2008 crisis? Certainly. But none of those differences change the fact that depositors with more than $250,000 are being bailed out.
Source: It’s Still a Bank Bailout, Even If You Don’t Want to Call It One
The latest court documents provide damning proof of News Corp’s intentional malice and mendacity, as Alan Austin reports.
NEWS CORP CEO Rupert Murdoch has just had the worst week of his professional life since the phone hacking scandals shut down his British newspaper, News of the World, in 2011.
Source: Murdoch presenters and executives admit they lie to you routinely
Public relations is at the core of coal and gas industry influence which has governments actually incentivising the burning of the planet. Grant Ennis, who has just released the book Dark PR, explores how corporate disinformation campaigns allow this to happen.
Privatised Corporate Media has become the business of “creating and not reporting news”. Facts and their verification fail to even begin to be required in favor of imagination. Profit is the goal and ratings the means to achieve it in a market where the money larely flows from a minority at the top down and not from the majority at the bottom up. Peter Costello has pivoted Ch9 to the Murdoch’s business model to hopefully attract a larger portion of that cash flow from the usual suspects. Red Alert is just an example of new and normalised sensationalism and propaganda sold to us as news.
The backlash over Nine Entertainment’s “Reds Under the Beds” campaign continues as they defend their stories by pointing to “panel of experts”. Who are these experts?
Source: What’s the scam with Nine’s “Panel of Experts”? Red alert, it’s ASPI – Michael West
It was revealed that: “More than 2030 people died after receiving a Centrelink debt notice, also known as robo-debt, according to new data released by the Department of Human Services.”
Source: Many suffered a robodebt of death – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Will Albanese back Australia or Washington on Julian Assange? If he is “sincere,” as the more doe-eyed Labor Party supporters say, what is he waiting for? If he fails to secure Julian’s release, Australia will cease to be sovereign. We will be little Americans. Official.
I backed Bernie in 2016 when he ran for the Democratic nomination for president against Hillary Clinton and backed him again in 2020. I took some crap for doing this from Clinton people, but I’m glad I did it. The system needed shaking up. It needed Bernie’s candidacy even if he wasn’t going to get the nomination.
I love Bernie because he has more guts than any politician I know. Hell, he has more guts than just about anyone I know.
But I’m still not going to be labor secretary again.
Peter Costello’s “Mainstream Media” Turns its back to reality for “Ratings”
The mainstream press is unashamedly beating the drums of war while deliberately turning away from what is actually happening, economically and politically in the region, writes Dr William Briggs.
Source: China less of a threat to democracy than the mainstream media
A few things are worth noting in this frothy mix of fantabulation and establishment fire breathing. In the quest to gather such a panel, no effort has been made to consult the expertise of a China hand. That lobby, able to provide a more nuanced, less heavy-footed approach, is being shunned, their advice exorcised in any effort to encourage war.
Source: War over Taiwan: Australia’s Gang of Five – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The LNP went down without so much as a whimper on May 21 2022. It was a defeat one could blame on many factors; race, misogyny and right-wing MPs of the Liberal and National parties. And those same people are still around today. You know who I mean – yesterday’s men who still believe it’s their right to rule.
The Liberal’s defeat could also be blamed on factors such as a lack of policies, flawed leadership, consistent failures while in power, and poor economic management. However, the main reason was that the public had finally caught up with the Americanisation of our politics. Its leader Scott Morrison played a lone hand in a presidential-style campaign.
The latest official statistics confirm Australia’s economy is back among the global leaders. Alan Austin suggests it is time for reform.
Source: Labor can manage the economy, now let’s fix the inequalities
Nothing normal.
Whenever a narrative is detached from observable, tangible, bona-fide, actual real reality but widely believed anyway, staggeringly shitty things always happen. As the gulf between what is and what is believed grows larger, trauma, misery, oppression, and, in the worst cases, piles of gooey, smelly, otherwise-avoidable death inevitably follow.
Whenever mass delusions like Australia’s climate debate occur, it is meant to be journalism’s mission to peel back the layers of crud, these conditioned false truisms, and drag democracies closer to a state of informed decision making. But here’s the fucking thing: as the dust settles on this age, what emerges is the largest media voices – particularly Murdoch, but on this topic almost everyone in Australia, from the ABC to Channel 7 – helped spread and proliferate mass delusion more effectively than any other force, bar the Church, on the fucking planet.
These same voices now and forever tell us The Greens, the only party with a position conducive with humanity’s continued tenancy on Earth, are the unreasonable ones?
Inhumanely wealthy individuals in mining have purchased the support of both major parties. And the extreme propaganda end of the “news” spectrum has enabled this by claiming the climate crisis is nonsense, for decades, while the more “reasonable” press allows that stupidity to survive by telling us to consider both sides as the fires and floods keep getting worse
Source: How to sell out your species while pretending to be the adults in the room | The Shot
I am not a journalist. As a writer, I don’t know what label people put on me. Blogger, perhaps? Columnist? Most certainly, l don’t write like one. l just write about such things as Super concessions to wealthy people.
In his appearance at the Robodebt Royal Commission yesterday, Stuart Robert wants us to believe that not only was he the one that finally put a stop to the illegalities of income averaging, but that he knew it was wrong all along. However, the pesky Westminster system stopped him from speaking out.
Source: Stuart Robert – loyal Robodebt slayer – Michael West
Scott Morrison and Stuart Robert presided over a gross policy failure that brutally harmed vulnerable Australians and cost the nation $1.2 billion in compensation. Yet they still have their jobs, writes Belinda Jones.
Source: Morrison and Robodebt-responsible ministers deserve to lose their jobs
Audio Interview
The use of the century old Espionage Act in the Julian Assange case continues to set the chilling precedent of a bleak future in American journalism, a precedent that endangers even those outside US borders.
Source: The Nightmare Espionage Act That is Killing Julian Assange and the First Amendment – scheerpost.com
Remember these two kept telling us “the outlook is great”
The outlook for most of us, however, suggests tough times ahead. Usually, governments cop the blame when things go wrong economically. The Opposition under Dutton is doing everything possible to discredit the Albanese Government.
They will use the economic slowdown caused by rises in the cash rate, price rises, and other factors to smash the Government’s financial credentials.
It has already adopted the mantra, “why is everything dearer under Labor?”
All this is done with total indifference to the horrendous economic management they showed in almost a decade and only finished a few months ago in a disastrous election loss. Never can it ever claim again that they are the best money managers.
The Robodebt Commission lays bare a lack of regard for the rule of law among both ministers and public servants.
On 30 November last year, when the House of Representatives was censuring former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Mr Albanese rose and stated with force:
The fact is that our democracy is precious. There’s no room for complacency … we can’t take our democracy for granted.
Yet his own office is engaged in undermining the rule of law; a foundation for democracy. If the Prime Minister doesn’t act in this instance, he’s no better than the man that was censured on that day.
Source: Robodebt and transparency failures: is the rule of law optional for the PM’s office? – Michael West
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